New Study Shows Hiking With an Engineer Has No Effect on Daily Enjoyment - The Trek

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Aug 12, 2026 : DanceOff P

Pacific Crest Trail

New Study Shows Hiking With an Engineer Has No Effect on Daily Enjoyment

Abstract

In this article, researchers explored how twenty variables impacted one hiker’s daily enjoyment of the northernmost 300 miles of the California section of the Pacific Crest Trail. The sole participant of the study, an extroverted and super hot lady-hiker, age twenty-nine, had been hiking alone for the fourteen days prior to data collection, then hiked with an engineer during the duration of the study. That engineer was Brian. Only one variable (trail quality) showed a statistically significant correlation with enjoyment, confirming the author’s hypothesis that hiking with an engineer would have zero impact on her daily enjoyment of the PCT.

This is joke, guys. Come on, I’m obviously joking.

Introduction

The first few days that I hiked with Brian, I was pretty sure I was annoying him. When we left camp in the morning, we didn’t make plans about where we were going, so there was the ever-present possibility of losing him in the woods, of being alone again. He seemed content to sit in silence during our shared breaks, and he always had an earbud in, so even if I did talk, I wasn’t sure he was actually listening.

This wasn’t my first time hiking with an engineer. There was UpDog, Justine. The PCT is rife with them, arguably overrun. Of all the engineers I’ve hiked with, Brian was certainly the most engineeriest of them all. While I asked him questions about family, life back home, his time on the trail, questions that were occasionally rewarded with a, "Oh, that’s an interesting question," from Brian, he rarely asked me questions in return. When he did, it was something like, "What percentage of the time do you spend looking at the ground?" or, "What are the differences between a walk and a hike?" The latter question we probably could’ve argued about for hours.

Brian was stuck with me, for now. He’d gotten a blister on the bottom of one of his feet, a blister that was trapped underneath his calluses, and the pain was slowing him down. He was lazy; he loved to sleep in and take long lunches, which was very compatible with my hiking style (being slow.) Still, I figured that once his foot healed, he’d race ahead, never to be seen again.

Methods

When I asked Brian what he does in his tent at night, he told me that he fills out a daily spreadsheet. The spreadsheet started as an accountability measure for him, a way to track his enjoyment to ensure that he was staying out here for the right reasons. Now, it’s a way for friends and family to follow along with his hike, a glimpse into our world by the numbers.

Sensing a real opportunity for connection, I decided to make a spreadsheet of my own. I wasn’t interested in measuring nearly as much as Brian did, or for as long, but I was curious. I decided to focus on enjoyment, solely measuring variables that I thought might correlate with it. I took Brian’s advice and mostly focused on qualitative measures, only using quantitative data when it would be easily remembered at the end of the day. Like Brian, my spreadsheet became an evening ritual.

Results

It took us fourteen days to walk from Burney to Ashland, just over the Oregon Border. We hiked about 20 miles per day on average, including zeros, a marked improvement from the 17 I was doing before I started hiking with Brian. Our average elevation gain was about 3300 feet, which is pretty dang flat, though it certainly didn’t feel it.

We usually departed camp around 8:30, which is at least two hours later than everyone else we met. At its core, that wake up time is what kept us together, even though Brian was constantly encouraging me to wake up earlier so he would be motivated to do the same. We’d make it to camp about twelve hours later, giving us just enough time to set up and cook before dark.

I don’t have data from before Brian and I started hiking together, but with Brian I rated my connectedness at a 4.6 out of 5, my loneliness a corresponding 0.4 out of 5. I am certain my loneliness ratings were much higher before.

My most-used performance enhancing drug was music, which I listened to 9 of the 14 days. I had a meaningful interaction with about 4 people per day. I had a pain rating of 1 or 2 out of 5, 5 out of 14 days, always related to potential blisters in those damn Hokas. The other days I didn’t experience pain at all, and my muscle fatigue I rated at a 1.7 out of 5, worse than the zero rating I would’ve preferred and kept if I was only responsible to myself.

I had an animal encounter about 50% of the time. Brian and I getting rattled at by a huge rattlesnake the very first time we walked together. A family of deer fighting over his pee. Squirrels bleating with alarm when they found me in my hammock, and...